As announced last week, OGX, Eike Batista’s oil company, posted a loss of R$509.8 million in 2011, almost 4x more than the R$135.5 million loss it posted the year before. According to the company, the negative result is largely due to the increased expenditure on its exploration activities.

Testing investor’s patience…

The company seems to be testing the investor’s patience as the results were not well digested by the market (although Eike doesn’t seem too uncomfortable showing off his wealth). “Gone is the time to discuss projects expectations, the market wants to see results” said SLW’s analyst Erick Scott. According to Scott, the company’s results were “poor and lower than expected.” Needless to say, the stock was severely punished and sank last friday.

Lowering expectations…

According to OGX, the company expects to deliver up to 730,000 barrels per day by 2015. But in a conference call to analysts, operations director Paulo Mendonca said that the scenario can be reassessed. “We are prepared to review (down) forecasts. I’m sure that if we do not reach those numbers, we will still have the same oil we have today. Our production curve will remain very interesting.”

Analysts are starting to seem uncertain about the company‘s ability to deliver. “Because OGX has already delayed the production schedule, there are also doubts about whether the company can reach its production target by 2015,” says Scott.

Eike still celebrates …

He is the world’s 7th richest with US$30 billion, according to Forbes. Needless to say is that his billions came mostly from his investors, thee same “muppets” (as Goldman Sachs would put it) who have not made a dime yet. And that, of course, has not prevented him to enjoy his billions by buying a few toys here and there:

Takeaway: we’re not advocating that an entrepreneur should not enjoy his wealth… it is fine, as long as it is not at his investors expense. And, by the way, there is nothing wrong by laying it low once in a while …